It's a rare company indeed that doesn't have some sort of web presence nowadays. Even if it's not an all-singing all-dancing web-to-print setup a website is still an important shop window, as well as a brand-building opportunity that says a lot about a company. 

And of course a website will always have some sort of "contact us" section, even if this most basic of information can be annoyingly difficult to locate at times. My question is, do you know who monitors any emails that come into your business via your website? Where do they land? What happens when that person is away? Is the email address being used actually valid?

I ask having realised over the course of several months that sundry attempts to make contact with a variety of print-related businesses via their websites have elicited zero response. I can hear the cries of "but it's quite understandable that people would choose to ignore you, you witch", and that may well be the case. Maybe I'm just unfortunate and have been deemed spam. However, I'm not attempting any sort of "mystery shopper" exercise nor am I trying to catch people out. In some instances I have been an actual punter, in others a potential punter.

This leads me to the conclusion that many messages from all sorts of people, including some that are likely to be far more impactful business-wise, are ending up in some sort of email black hole where they lurk, unread. And meanwhile, in a world where a Google search will elicit hundreds of alternatives in seconds, that prospective future customer has moved on.